If you are discontent with that, you are discontent with the gospel that God himself has given you and for which Christ died. And if you are embarrassed by the simplicity of that, you are embarrassed by God’s preeminent concern for man. Are you wiser than God? Have you more of his Spirit than his apostles? Why then do you say that more is necessary, that there must be a robust body of social thought and a vigorous program of social capture and renewal? God did not give us those things but the simplicity of the gospel because he saves his elect and is determined to do away with this world in judgment.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mk. 8:36)

There is an idea abroad that the evangelical churches lack an “elite,” by which the critics mean people who move in the highest circles of political, cultural, and economic influence. Laying aside the exaggeration of such a claim – for there are indeed evangelicals in high places – this is thought to be a great evil by those who bewail it. Indeed, some of them speak and act as though the country is sure to be lost to unbelief, socialism, and false religion unless evangelicals ‘get their act together’ and develop a culture that encourages people (especially young men) to aim for high achievement, and which enables evangelicals to attract, retain, and develop their best and brightest to that end. One commentator on some of Aaron Renn’s articles on this topic said he was going to Rome because evangelicalism did not have the intellectual apparatus to engage and reform the culture, whereas Rome does.

In reading the various articles on this topic, available mainly at American Reformer, one notices that there is practically no citation or quotation of scripture by those who are anxiously wringing their hands over the supposed lack of evangelical elites. Curious, that, seeing as American Reformer (AR) purports to “promote a vigorous Christian approach to the cultural challenges of our day, rooted in the rich tradition of Protestant social and political thought.”

What then does God say in his word about matters such as these? Our anxious typing heads say that they want economic influence: AR founder and fellow-traveler New Founding talk about an economic engine to drive the new Christendom, and they routinely vaunt and fall all over themselves about entrepreneurs. How does that match with Christ’s words? Did he say “blessed are the industrial magnates and innovators?” No indeed, he said rather, “Blessed are you who are poor” (Lk. 6:20). And when a rich man came to him and asked what he must do to gain eternal life, did he say, “Use your wealth to advance the kingdom by building a great business that employs many men and gives many alms to the poor and to the temple?” Did he not rather tell him to give it all away (18:18-30)? And, of course, we all know that when he stood in the temple and watched people making donations he saw a widow give her last two coins and castigated her for not investing them with a reputable trading house or banker, that she not be so poor and unable to give, unlike the rich folks who gave great sums. Except that is not what he did. He praised her valuing the support of God’s temple above worldly prosperity and said she had given more than the rich (21:1-4).

Come, you say, that you want elite influence, meaning for rich men to chat with other rich men in clubs, make deals, and engage in commerce. Have you forgotten that the Lord you claim to serve said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (18:24-25)? Or again, that it is a mark of the unbelieving world (Matt. 6:32; comp. 19-24) that it seeks after such things?

But let us go on. These men say they want intellectual influence, something impressive like Rome’s social thought. Have you ever read what Paul said to the Corinthians?

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (2:1-5)

Will you dare accuse Paul of being an anti-intellectual fundamentalist? He was not polished or suave, but fearful, weak, and trembling, and he did not come with a program of cultural engagement and renewal, but with the message of repentance unto life in the crucified Savior. (1 Cor. 15:3-4: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”) Is that too threadbare and intellectually unsophisticated for your tastes? Was the gospel of John the Baptist and Christ himself deeper, wider, more intellectually refined? This is it in its entirety: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).

If you are discontent with that, you are discontent with the gospel that God himself has given you and for which Christ died. And if you are embarrassed by the simplicity of that, you are embarrassed by God’s preeminent concern for man. Are you wiser than God? Have you more of his Spirit than his apostles? Why then do you say that more is necessary, that there must be a robust body of social thought and a vigorous program of social capture and renewal? God did not give us those things but the simplicity of the gospel because he saves his elect and is determined to do away with this world in judgment. He calls you to take up your cross and follow him in self-denial (16:24-26), not to take up the sword (26:52) and make war upon the world after a fleshly fashion (Jn. 18:36).

And there are many faithful men doing that at this present time. They go forth with the gospel and urge men to believe and to save themselves from this perverse generation. And what do these men who are obsessed with elites do? They sneer at them. (E.g., the AR article “Why Are There No Evangelical Elites?,” esp. the antepenultimate paragraph.) They say we need something more, else we shall lose the culture war. We’ve got to fight the political left head on and beat them, and we’ve got to excel Rome and the East or else lose our young men to their “rigor” of thought and worship.

I warn you plainly, if you are minded to think thus, that you are bewitched with worldly thinking and near to falling. Your very souls are in danger of apostasy and damnation, as being hearers of the word who have it choked out by “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” (Matt. 13:22). You forget that X said his kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36) and is not coming with signs to be observed (Lk. 17:20), and act as though you must establish that kingdom on earth by your own efforts (comp. Rom. 10:3).

How well did that work for the scribes and Pharisees? For the established churches of Europe? For New England, which is now the most godless and miserable region of America? But I fear, like Paul with the Galatians, that I have labored over you in vain. For your mind has been so ensnared by worldly notions of wealth and power that it has made it hard for you to hear the word of God. Tremble and fear, and cast off this worldliness in the humble reception of God’s word, lest you perish in the way. “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (1 Pet. 4:17), and every plant which he has not planted will be rooted up. Search the scripture and see that this obsession with worldly influence comes from worldly men, not from him who called you.

Tom Hervey is a member of Friendship Presbyterian Church in Laurens County, SC. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not of necessity reflect those of his church or its leadership or other members. He welcomes comments at the email address provided with his name. He is also author of Reflections on the Word: Essays in Protestant Scriptural Contemplation, and helped modernize Volume I of James Hervey’s classic dialogue on evangelical faith, Theron and Aspasio, available now at Monergism.